


Smoke and Lyrium

by bioticbootyshaker



Category: Dragon Age
Genre: Alternate Universe, Detective AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-02-21
Updated: 2013-02-21
Packaged: 2017-12-03 03:48:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/693765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bioticbootyshaker/pseuds/bioticbootyshaker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On the run and in hiding from Danarius, Fenris seeks the only help he can; a private investigator named Sebastian Vael, who has too many bad habits, and too much debt. Hiring Sebastian to keep an eye on Danarius and track his movement through the city, the two men approach their arrangement with professional coldness.</p><p>But when Sebastian learns the truth of what Danarius has done to Fenris, he finds himself becoming involved for more than simply getting the job done.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Smoke and Lyrium

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nightbloomings](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightbloomings/gifts).



Two years in the same building, on the same street corner, had afforded Sebastian nothing but monotony. It was always the same, day in and day out. Men, mostly, wanting to know what their wives were up to while they were at work. They smelled cologne on her, not their own, and they saw the way she dressed – like she had somewhere to be. Sebastian always felt like telling them if they actually took their wives somewhere nice and gave her a reason to wear her pretty new dress more often, they might not have to come and see him; but of course business was business, and _Sebastian’s_ business relied heavily on infidelity, lying, and cheating.

He could have easily quit the place, gone somewhere else and made a fresh start, but he wasn’t one to abandon business when it was good. Besides, he had never done well with travelling about the country, blown about like tumbleweed. He wanted to be rooted, to have a place that was his own, no matter how small and seedy and dilapidate it might be. He had what he needed; a roof over his head, food in his belly, whiskey in his glass. He was a man used to comfort and luxury – a boy from privilege and opportunity – but he had always possessed simple needs.

Excitement wasn’t unwelcome though; he could do with something unexpected. And with that thought, the man entered his office, and Sebastian was never quite the same again.

****  
Sebastian had never seen anyone like him. The clothes were what he expected, sleek pinstriped suit, his fedora cocked low over one eye, handkerchief bright red against the dark suit – almost startlingly – in his breast pocket. But he was strangely beautiful. Dark skinned, pouty lipped, jade eyed and lithe. He had legs that seemed to go on for miles, and Sebastian smiled as he roamed his eyes up and met the man’s steady stare.

“Can I help you?” Sebastian asked. 

“I’m not sure,” the man murmured. “I’ve heard that you handle many problems, but… to tell you the truth, Mr. Vael, you look surprisingly unimpressive.”

Sebastian tried to think of a witty retort, but he was left grasping at straws. He couldn’t say that the man wasn’t impressive, because he _was_. Cool and handsome and more than a little sexy, though Sebastian would sooner set fire to his own tongue than tell him so. Instead of biting back, Sebastian eased himself further into his chair and kicked his heels up onto his desk, looking at the man with his lids low, his eyelashes nearly brushing his cheeks. 

“If you’ve come here just to insult me, I’d prefer you not waste my time.”

“No,” the man said. He sighed and shifted his weight, rubbing his hands over the crease in his trousers. He removed his hat, crushed it between his fingers. He was far prettier without that hat shading his features; square-jawed with high cheekbones that looked sharp enough to cut glass. Sebastian swallowed, not liking how easily he was affected by a handsome face. Well, it wasn’t the first time he’d been attracted to a client, and it wouldn’t be the last. Then again, the man wasn’t his client yet, and judging by his attitude, Sebastian doubted he ever would be.

“I apologize,” the man said. “I just expected _more_. I’ve been told you know how to track people down.”

“That’s in my job description, yes,” Sebastian said, voice dry. “You have business you need handled, Mr…?”

“Best to be cautious,” the man said. “Just call me Fen. My friends call me that… You’re no friend of mine, but it’s as good as anything.”

“Reckon you don’t have a lot of friends,” Sebastian said. He meant it as a joke, something to cut through the tension and move them along, but Fen visibly winced. That wouldn’t do, he hadn’t meant to offend the man, or maybe any presumptions about his personal life. He was obviously unskilled with conversing with people, unused to having to speak openly and plainly to get what he wanted. Sebastian wasn’t without sympathy, but he was too old – and so was the man in front of him – to hold someone’s hand and guide them.

“Reckon I don’t,” Fen said. “I reckon, though, that you don’t either. The type of work you do, it’s almost impossible, isn’t it? No one wants to get close to you.”

It seemed to be a competition to see who could hurt the other the most with their words. Sebastian was in no mood and of no mind to play the man’s little games. He didn’t know him from Adam, and if the boy wanted to hurl insults at him, he could do it from down on the street, without wasting Sebastian’s time.

“One of two things needs to happen here,” Sebastian said. “Either cut the bullshit and talk straight with me, or get the hell out of my office.”

Oh, that certainly did… well, _something_. Fen stood a bit taller, his jaw tightened, his eyes narrowed, his face flushed. Sebastian liked the man, far more than most of the dull people who wandered into his office at all hours of the day; but that didn’t mean he didn’t take some satisfaction in shutting his pretty little mouth and raising a blush on his pretty little face. A small victory, but Sebastian had always been one to take whatever he could get.

He thought Fen would throw a punch, or shout a little before seeing himself out, but all of the fight ran out of him when he sighed. He took a seat across from Sebastian, his hands crushed over his hat, folded in his lap. For a little while he sat there, still and silent, looking down at his knuckles as though they had become the most interesting things in the universe. Sebastian sighed and lit up a cigarette, offering one to Fen who accepted with a small, “Thank you.” They smoked together in silence, the only noise the sound of traffic from the street, and the whipping of the fan in Sebastian’s muggy office.

Fen must have finally noticed the heat, because he shrugged out of his jacket, draping it over the back of the chair. 

“Someone is after me,” Fen finally said, his deep voice low, barely more than a murmur. 

“I don’t deal in protection,” Sebastian said. “You might want to go to the police if someone is coming after you.”

“No, no police,” Fen snapped. He looked at Sebastian’s raised eyebrow and bit his lip, settling back in the chair. “No,” he said, softer. “I can’t involve the police in this. They… complicate things. What I need is someone who might know his games and can track him, find out what he wants from me. I need someone just as slippery and underhanded as the man who’s hunting me. I need is someone like you.”

“That’s kind of you to say,” Sebastian said, dryly, “But like I said, that’s not how this works.”

“I know how this works,” Fen said. He turned in the chair and rustled through the pockets of his jacket before turning and tossing his checkbook onto the desk. “Name your price, Mr. Vael. I’ve no intention of leaving here without your promise to assist me.”

Sebastian stared at the checkbook in disbelief. It was easy to believe Fen was simply jerking him around, raising his hopes only to dash them. Obviously Sebastian was in need of money, otherwise his office wouldn’t have looked so shoddy and he wouldn’t have been dressed so shabbily. He supposed he seemed desperate, completely lacking in honor and pride, but it didn’t matter much. He had never been a creature of pride; he had always been a hungry creature though. Money, booze, sex, anything he could get his hands on. At the moment, he wanted to get his hands on nothing more than the boy’s checkbook. 

“Five thousand,” Sebastian said.

“ _Dollars_?” Fen blustered.

“No,” Sebastian purred, “Baseball cards.”

He watched the man’s jaw twitch as he ground his teeth together. Fen snatched up his checkbook and scribbled violently before ripping the check off and tossing it at Sebastian. “There,” he spat, “I trust you’re worth it, Mr. Vael, or else I’ve been lied to. I expect you to be worth every penny.”

“There’s no refunds issued,” Sebastian said. “So you know in advance.” He picked up the check and looked at it for a moment before tucking it into his breast pocket. Sebastian leaned forward and folded his hands together. “Tell me a little more about this man that’s after you.”

“His name is Danarius,” Fen said. He looked… anxious. He glanced over his shoulder constantly, as though he expected someone to pounce on him at any moment. He checked the shadows suspiciously, his lips trembling and his hands wringing absently in his lap. Sebastian had seen such nervousness before – albeit to a lesser degree -- but usually it was directed towards a husband spending his earnings at the racetrack or a wife seen out with another man; it was never in fear of their lives.

“He means to kill me,” Fen said. His voice was low, soft. Sebastian was forced to lean closer to hear him. “There was… an incident. I won’t go into the details, because they’re none of your concern. The reason I’m hiring you is so you can watch for him, see what he’s doing in the city, find out the reason he’s come so close to me. If it is only my paranoia that has me so tied up in knots, I’ll accept that. If he does mean to harm me, then, well…”

“If he means to harm you, what do you want me to do? Hurt him first? _Kill him_? You’re barking up the wrong tree, kid.”

Fen smiled; a crooked smile that looked good on him. His eyes caught the light of his smile and seemed to glow in the low light. There was something about him that Sebastian couldn’t put his finger on, a vulnerability that hid behind stone and steel. A strange dichotomy, but one that Sebastian liked; one that excited him.

“I don’t think I am at all,” Fen murmured. “Call me crass, Mr. Vael, but you strike me as the sort of man who can be easily bought. That’s not an insult, it’s a fact. You go where the money is. In your line of work, I’d think that’s the only way for you to survive. You’re loyal to money, though, aren’t you? You’re not the type to bite the hand that feeds you.”

The man’s estimation of him hit Sebastian hard, lit up on his nerves and sunk like a stone in his stomach. The truth was often a bitter pill to swallow, but Sebastian had never held any allusions that he was a good man, or an honorable man, or even a particularly decent man. He was a man with bills that needed paying and a belly that needed feeding and a habit that needed satiating. 

He had no time or decency or honor or goodness; he had even less time to be loyal to anything but his paycheck.

“I’m loyal enough,” Sebastian drawled. “But I’m not about to die for you.”

‘I don’t think that will be necessary,” Fen said. “I’m only asking you to keep your eye on him and, well, do your job. If he comes at me, I’ll be forced to handle things as well as I can. You don’t need to get tangled up in this.”

“Oh, trust me, I have no intention of being tangled up in anything,” Sebastian said. “I’ll do what’s required of me, but beyond that…” Sebastian shrugged, tapping out another cigarette and lighting it, taking in a deep lungful and blowing the smoke from his nose. He looked at the man through the drifting smoke, not enjoying the way his eyes seemed to peer through him, into some part of himself Sebastian had long since forgotten about. What part that was, he couldn’t say, but it was a part that felt tender and fragile. “Beyond that, I never get involved in my client’s issues, Fen.”

Fen stood, smoothing out his suit before slipping his hands into his pockets. Sebastian had never seen a man who was all leg the way Fen was; he didn’t tower, far from it, he was actually quite a bit shorter than Sebastian, but he was so lean and lithe and his legs dominated so much of his body that he _appeared_ to tower.

He was a unique man, but that didn’t mean – at least not in Sebastian’s opinion – that he was necessarily a good man. After all, this Danarius fellow was hunting him for some reason, and while Sebastian cast no dispersions on Fen’s character, he doubted the man’s hands were entirely clean in the affair.

He’d ponied up the bread, though, and there was no reason for Sebastian to understand what he led him to his office, or what Danarius had against him, or what he might or might not have done in the past. All that mattered was the money.

“I’m not judging you, Mr. Vael.”

“Don’t really give a shit if you are,” Sebastian muttered.

“All I’m trying to do is reach an understanding. I apologize if I’ve come across as cold or domineering or---“

“A royal asshole,” Sebastian said.

“Yes, that,” Fen agreed. He actually _laughed_ , which surprised Sebastian. He had expected the man’s laugh to be as chilly as the rest of him, but it was warm, and baritone, and filled the room and Sebastian’s belly. “You don’t have to like me, you just have to do this for me. That’s all.”

“I know how to do my job,” Sebastian bit. “I’ll thank you to mind your affairs and let me mind mine.”

“Your affairs _are_ my affairs,” Fen corrected. “I’ll thank you to remember that.”

He left without another word. Sebastian rubbed his temple, trying to fight off the headache he could feel growing, spreading its painful tendrils.

It was late enough for a drink. Well, any time was late enough, in Sebastian’s opinion. He pulled a bottle of whiskey out from under his desk and drank until Fen and his lovely eyes and his chilly attitude and his warm laugh were the faintest of memories and he was blissfully numb.

**Author's Note:**

> A four chapter commission for avrilxiv! <3
> 
> I've had this AU kicking around in my head for some time, and I've finally gotten the chance to write it out, thanks to avril's encouragement. :) I hope that Sebastian's issues sync up well with his in-game issues -- his indecision and fear accompanied by the man he was before he joined the Chantry -- and that the chemistry between he and Fenris remains palpable. These two are by far my most enduring ship, and I've never written them in an AU, particularly not of this length before.
> 
> So yes, I hope everyone enjoys it. :)


End file.
